Long Beach looks at initial findings of Black community health assessment

In the past year, several members of Long Beach’s Black community have struggled to meet their basic needs, such as access to food, transportation, and housing, among other findings, according to the city’s initial data results from the Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment.

The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services hosted a Juneteenth event last week to share the initial findings of the health assessment with community members. The event also had a panel discussion, where Black city leaders addressed how these results could be used to better serve the city’s Black community.

The goal of the assessment is to understand the needs and factors that are impacting Black residents, officials said, but also to identify and compile current resources in the city that people have access to.

Data collection for the Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment began in June last year and concluded in February. Information from residents was collected through a community survey and at listening sessions – which gave Black residents of all ages and backgrounds a voice to express their current social, economic and safety challenges living in Long Beach, officials said.

“The Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment led by community members and organizations as subject matter experts can revolutionize how the health department gathers, analyzes and applies data by prioritizing the voices of lived experiences and historically marginalized subgroups,” Kevin Hatcher, Long Beach’s Black Health Equity Coordinator and program manager, said during the event on Wednesday, June 11.

More than 330 people participated in the survey and listening sessions for the assessment, officials said. Respondents had widely varied backgrounds, including 25% who were from the homeless population. Of the hundreds of respondents, 31 were ages 18-24, 202 were ages 25-54, and 103 were 55 and older.

The community survey respondents reported that in the past year, they or their family members struggled to obtain basic needs, such as food (25.2%), access to transportation (24%), and housing (28.7%).

Of those respondents experiencing housing insecurity, 24.9% indicated that they were unlikely or very unlikely to afford housing that month, the data showed. Of those who would not be able to afford housing that month, 42.9% were men and 28.6% were women.

“This really speaks to the housing burden that exists here within Long Beach on Black residents,” Kristopher McLucas, research facilitator, said during the presentation.

The assessment data also revealed that among those who are employed full-time or part-time, 35.2% reported working multiple jobs.

“When we talk about housing burden and how that plays out for people,” McLucas said, “you can really see how Black residents are coping with this by engaging in multiple employment opportunities.”

Approximately 43% of the community survey respondents expressed that within the last 12 months, it was often true or sometimes true that they could not afford to eat a balanced meal, the data showed. Among those who reported this, 12% of 18 to 24-year-old residents, 71% of 25 to 54-year-old residents, and 17% of 55-and-older residents ate less because there was not enough food.

“Within the last 12 months, approximately 43% reported that it was either often true or sometimes true that they cannot afford to eat a balanced meal,” McLucas said. “When we talk about a balanced meal, we’re also addressing health equity, because it’s not just the quantity of food, but the quality of food, and we know the type of food that we do eat is directly related to health outcomes.”

The health assessment also shared data about Long Beach’s Black community’s exposure to violence and gun violence, impact of incarceration, chronic health conditions, anti-Black discrimination and social connectedness and cohesion.

“Almost 60% of people indicated that they were satisfied, or very satisfied, with the emotional support they received from family and friends,” McLucus said. “In the larger community, they’re experiencing discrimination and other stressors, but within communities, people are feeling very supported and they know that there are people that they can connect with, which is very much a strength.”

The next steps for the assessment will be to capture community feedback on the data results, such as what Black community members would like to see done with the data, and then finalize the report and make it publicly accessible, officials said.

The assessment will eventually be accessible through Long Beach’s Racial and Health Equity Data Hub. There is currently some information for Black Health Equity at the data hub.

Resources for the community will also be available at the data hub. The Black Health Equity Collaborative is working on a community health resource map that will be on the city’s webpage, and currently, there are 75 local organizations that will be certified of being resources specifically for Black residents, officials said.

“In the Health Department’s collective impact bureau, our focus is on building partnerships and strategies that are grounded in community voice,” said Jeremy Scruggs, Long Beach’s Health Equity Officer. “We also know that the work of equity is far too big for any one department to carry alone. It takes a shared vision, effort, and deep trust.

“That’s why our team has been working alongside Black community members to launch the Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment,” he added. “This is more than just a data project. It’s a process of listening, learning, and honoring the life experiences that too often go unrecognized. We reimagined the assessment as a tool for relationship building and long-term investments, not just a report.”

After the data presentation, Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie, nonprofit leader Darick Simpson, and Black Infant Health coordinator Gwen Manning served as panelists to discuss the results of the health assessment.

The panelists discussed several questions, including how the city could address the concerns of access to affordable food and housing for Long Beach Black residents.

“We need to make sure that we’re thinking about how we are developing a city in a holistic manner that serves the residents that currently live here and addresses the issues that they have,” Ricks-Oddie said. “We just talked about all the data that we’re collecting, please know that there are those of us in the city who pay attention to this data, who think about this data, and think about how it impacts the types of policies that we are putting forward, but…I’d love to see more Black people come out to the meetings when we’re talking about these polices and ordinances.”

Ricks-Oddie encouraged the community to “Talk about your experience, tell us what you think, and I will tell you, we listen.”

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